Good morning! Other than a lot of moving and shaking in the ownership ranks, the NBA news cycle has slowed to a crawl. No Knicks have been extended and they remain last in the league in total players on their roster. That just means September is going to be a busy month.
In the meantime, we continue on with our summer project: counting down the top 100 Knicks ever, with a focus on the players that have defined the Leon Rose era. In case you’re just catching up on the list, here are the Rose era players who have appeared thus far:
100. Alec Burks
85. Jordan Clarkson
81. Jose Alvarado
74. Derrick Rose
70. Isaiah Hartenstein
63. Immanuel Quickley
60. Landry Shamet
55. Donte DiVincenzo
50. RJ Barrett
And with that, we move to the last current bench player before we get to the current starters higher up on the list…
The Knicks 100: No. 45 - Deuce McBride
Say it with me now…
DEUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE!!!!!!
Find me another role player who had an opposing arena chanting his name in the NBA freaking Finals.
You can’t, because it’s never happened before.
MVP chants are a dime a dozen. But a custom chant that travels seamlessly from coast to coast? That’s the ultimate compliment.
Such is the legend of Miles “Deuce” McBride, the 36th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft who has done nothing but defy odds and opponents alike since his arrival five years ago.
I’d have called you a pie-eyed optimist if you’d told me in December of 2023 that the kid who shot 33 percent from the field over his first two years as a pro would go on to have the following lines on his resume:
Be among the top 100 scorers in Knicks history by the end of his fifth season
Shoot 40 percent from deep over the last three years
Be on the court for over a thousand playoff minutes since 2024, and…
Rank among the top 40 postseason scorers in Knicks history
But here we are.
Advanced stats, counting stats and everything in between all tell the same story. Year after year, Deuce McBride keeps getting better. He’s become one of the league’s elite marksmen, hitting 3.7 threes per 36 minutes at a 41.3 percent clip last season. Among rotation players, only Kon Knueppel, Sam Merrill and Isaiah Joe can claim to have done the same. Then in the playoffs, he overcame a lingering injury to be a co-sixth man (along with Landry Shamet) for the championship run. Even with a quiet end to the finals, McBride produced plenty along the way, adding to a postseason legacy that now includes an astounding 58 games, just two back of Allan Houston for 15th most in franchise history.
That lengthy playoff resume filled with steady production is why I separated McBride from the group of Stallworth, Meminger, Riordan, Gianelli and Shamet, who checked in at spots 56-60. He’s also a notch below the likes of Cazzie Russell, Jerry Lucas and Mitchell Robinson - other role players who made bigger contributions to title teams and/or had lengthier track records of significant contribution. We’ll get to them a bit higher on the list.
Because of that gap, we have 10 players to go through before we get to the next name on our list:
Immediately above McBride we have a foursome of big men who hold very different places in franchise lore.
Walt Bellamy (our third hall-of-famer to appear on the list, if you’re keeping track) is a player who will always be known more for his exit from the Knicks than for what he did while he was here. There’s a Julius Randle comp to be made in that Bellamy not only went out a better player, but a better fitting piece as well. Unlike Julius though, Bellamy didn’t make a single All-Star team in New York. Even so, he’s 31st all time in points and 13th in rebounds as a Knick.
One good hall-of-famer deserves another, which brings us to Amar’e Stoudemire, who was enshrined in Springfield just last weekend. Stoudemire has long been one of the most difficult Knicks to consider historically. If you’re doing a list of the five worst contracts in franchise history and wanted to include his name, I wouldn’t give you much of an argument. Truthfully, there isn’t a single moment from the last four years he was here that sticks out for me, at least not in a positive way. At the same time, the highs of that first season were so high, and even if we were the only team offering him a nine-figure deal without any failsafe for injury, he took on a responsibility that no one else wanted. That should carry a fair amount of weight.
Tyson Chandler’s resume speaks for itself: Defensive Player of the Year, All-NBA, All-Star, two All-Defense nods, and two playoff appearances. His underperformance in the 2013 conference semis will always be a part of his story, but he was the defensive anchor of a great Knicks team. More importantly, a lob to Tyson Chandler might have been the most exciting play MSG had going for it over a 20-year span.
Marcus Camby is my top pick among our foursome of centers for one reason: Larry Bird. During and after the 1999 Eastern Conference Finals, Bird, then the coach of the Pacers, called Camby the most dominant player on the Knicks. My recollection matches up. Averaging 14 points, 11 boards, three blocks and two steals, Camby had his way in one of the biggest series wins in franchise history. In Games 5 & 6 against Indy, Marcus was a +46, more than three times the total margin of victory. Between that and his role on another conference finalist the following year, he gets the nod over Bellamy, Stat and Tyson.
Checking in at No. 40 is Johnny Green, the highest ranked player on the list never to make the playoffs in New York. So why is he this high? Simple: Green made three All-Star teams as a Knick, and while the value of an All-Star appearance in the early 60’s isn’t what it is now, it was far enough into the NBA’s existence for those appearances to mean something. In 1965, for instance, Green was one of just four named All-Stars (out of 21) who didn’t go on to make the hall of fame. Should it matter that two of his All-Star nods came as a replacement for an injured player? A bit, but so does the fact that Green ranks 23rd in franchise history for points scored and sixth in rebounds.
In a similar vein, we have a player at 39 who was briefly one of Green’s teammates. Kenny Sears is probably the most unknown multi-time All-Star in Knicks history, in part because of when he played (from 1955 to 1963) and also because his teams only made the postseason once, and were eliminated in two games. Still, Sears got MVP consideration in four separate seasons in New York and he’s the first player on our list to rank inside the top ten in Knicks history for win shares, slotting in at 8th.
At 38, we have our third consecutive player from this era of Knicks basketball, the best of the bunch, Willie Naulls. Like Sears and Green, Naulls didn’t do much winning here, but he made the All-Star team in four of his five full seasons with the organization. He might have the least celebrated 25.0 point scoring season in NBA history, for three reasons:
The Knicks were 29-51 and finished in last place
He wasn’t even the leading scorer on his own team, trailing Richie Guerin’s 29.5 points per game
His scoring average was half that of the NBA’s leading scorer that season, a guy by the name of Wilt Chamberlain
Naulls still has an impressive statistical argument for a top 40 spot, ranking 13th in franchise history in points scored and fifth in rebounds. He also holds the distinction of being traded for future Hall-of-Famers on his way into and out of New York1.
Next up, we have the second former MVP to appear on the list, Bob McAdoo. Jalen Brunson is currently in a dog fight with McAdoo and Bernard King for the highest career scoring average in Knicks history, but I wouldn’t count on him catching Mac, who had the benefit of a short mid-career stint to boost his numbers. McAdoo spent just one full season in New York, and to his credit, that one season was pretty good, leading the Knicks to a playoff series victory before falling hard to Dr. J’s far superior Sixers.
At 36 we have a personal favorite of mine, Kurt Thomas. This might seem high for a role player whose time here was spent pretty equally between some very good teams and some…not so good ones. Zooming out though, Thomas was such a steady force for so long. He’s 14th all time in minutes played with the Knicks, one spot ahead of Dave DeBusschere. He’s also 9th in rebounds, 19th in playoff rebounds, 24th in points, and 16th in win shares. Unfortunately, his two best postseason showings came on two of the more forgettable playoff teams of the modern era, in 2001 and 2004. Like I said, he’s 36 here, but No. 1 in my heart.
Last but not least before we get to our next Leon Rose era Knick is Gerald Wilkins. Looking back on my attempt to do this exercise five years ago, Wilkins is probably the player I disrespected the most. I had him 40th back then despite the fact that he was a top-three scorer on a bunch of good Knicks teams, including three that made the second round. He never made an All-Star team and always lived in the shadow of his hall of fame brother, but he ranks in the top 15 for minutes, points and assists as a Knick, not to mention 25th in postseason scoring.
NEXT UP: RIDIN’ THE D TRAIN ALL THE WAY TO A CHIP.
🏀
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
New York sent Slater Martin to St. Louis to acquire Naulls and eventually traded him and Kenny Sears to San Francisco for Tom Gola. If you’re wondering why Martin, a 7-time All-Star and 5-time All-NBA player, didn’t make the list, it’s because his stint as a Knick lasted only 13 games.
Unless Leon has a plan to use Deuce in a trade that will bolster the "Run it back" 2026-27 Knicks, I hope Deuce will be moving up on all those lists you mentioned.
As an adjunct of sorts to Ray’s piece last week about gene Conley and his pitching match up with DeBusschere i include this tidbit from a longer article about his baseball career. Most notably, I learned that the White Sox chose to protect Dave instead of future Cy Young winner Denny McClain.
While his accomplishments in the NBA validated his choice, DeBusschere’s brief baseball career still left open the question of what might have been if he had stayed in baseball. His major-league record of 3-4 with an ERA of 2.90 in 36 games and 102 1/3 innings pitched does not offer any definitive evidence, but his performance at all levels certainly indicated that he had promise. No less telling is that in 1963, when a ruling by Commissioner Ford Frick prevented the Sox from optioning bonus player DeBusschere to the minors, a move that would have allowed them to keep a young Denny McLain on the roster, they instead protected DeBusschere, believing that while control remained an issue, his curve and fastball made him a better, or at least more developed, prospect than McLain, who had yet to develop the curve that would later help him win 31 games in 1968 and Cy Young Awards in 1968 and 1969